While I am neither a lawyer nor a policeman, I am capable of understanding legal principles as they apply to the interactions between sworn officers and regular citizens. 

I became interested in this issue when I was almost arrested for "interfering with an investigation."  I had gone to the post office to check my post office box.  There was a yellow police tape cordon around the post office.  Not wanting to have to waste time driving back later, only to find the cordon still up, I wished to inquire when the investigation would likely be completed. 

There was an officer whose post was obviously crowd control, so I  thought that he would be  the logical one to ask my simple question.  Well this public servant, whose salary was paid by the good citizens of Dekalb County, Ga., including me, decided that I was totally out of line in requesting his attention and began to scream at me about arresting me for interfering with "his" investigation.  Rather ironic, since my intent was to leave and only return after "his" investigation was complete.

A plainclothes investigator, I presume a detective, came out of the post office during this officers high-decibel tirade and directed him into the post office, I guess on some make work assignment, because the plainclothesman then apologized for the uniformed officers behavior, which the crowd had become somewhat agitated over. There were calls for having the officer strung up by painful means since I was not the only one he had shown unwarranted aggression toward.

Well, I filed a complaint which was basically ignored, but it took a lot of energy and time, because the county's finest just didn't want to hear about it.  They had more important things to do, I suppose.  Like harassing other innocent, well meaning, non threatening individuals.

I decided that this could not be an isolated incident and began to research police brutality incidents. In the intervening years (this happened about 1994) I have read many police reports and newspaper accounts, watched videos on TV news channels, read transcripts from courts, and heard first hand accounts from people who have had frightening encounters with these public defenders.

While it is obvious that the great majority of sworn officers are good and decent human beings, it is equally obvious that some police officers are simply criminals with badges and guns.  Sometimes, the leadership is the problem, in which cases the problem is not only criminals with badges and guns, but with an establishment that either won't or can't correct it. 

It is up to us, the good citizens, to demand the highest in standards of behavior from our police forces and their leaders, and to demand changes when leadership fails to address the  problems of out-of-control  power freaks with the ability to injure or kill with impunity.

I propose that all officer involved deaths should be investigated as homicides with the same rules of law and  standards applied as in the investigations of non-officer involved homicides, with one exception - treat the blue wall of silence as interference with an investigation.

Celebrate Freedom - Live free of fear.